Pundits slam Berisha, saying he should be banned

FORMER Socceroo Mark Bosnich says he expects Besart Berisha to be suspended for making contact with a match official during Melbourne Victory's clash with Adelaide United last weekend.

Fourth official Daniel Elder had separated Berisha and Adelaide's Jordan Elsey and escorted Berisha away from the scuffle - only for the Victory marksman to push him in the chest as he turned away.

On Monday, FFA's match review panel determined Berisha had a case to answer as to whether he committed the offence of "Unsporting conduct toward a match official" in the 45th minute of the game.

The incident has been referred to the Disciplinary and Ethics Committee for hearing as to whether the offence has been committed, and if so, what sanction should be imposed.

"I actually do think this is serious enough (to go to the tribunal)," Bosnich said on Fox Sports' A-League Hour.

"Now, Besart Berisha's one of my favourite players in the A-League and has been for all the time that he's been here. (He's a) fantastic player, doesn't need to resort to this type of thing."

Bosnich said the official making contact with Berisha shouldn't affect whether he was cited for the incident.

"There is a school of thought to say that the official shouldn't have had his hand on him," Bosnich said.

"My difference with that is the fact the official was taking him away. He wasn't in any way, in my opinion, aggressive.

"If you lay your hands on an official - and we've seen Danny Vukovic get suspended and miss an Olympic games - so on that, the fact that you cannot touch an official, I believe he will get at least two weeks."

Fox Sports' Andy Harper agreed, saying allowing Berisha to get away with making contact with a match official would send a bad signal to the grassroots.

"The match officials and their role is sacrosanct, I'm consistent in that," Harper said.

"I love Besart Berisha like everyone else in the competition, but whatever, you just can't, you can't touch match officials.

"It's a bad signal to the grassroots, which is where our ultimate responsibility lies."

Bosnich also highlighted an incident involving Victory's Rhys Williams, where the defender dragged Adelaide's Isaias to the ground by his arm.

"That body slam by Rhys Williams, I'm sorry, that's twice in two weeks he's been very fortunate to stay on the park," Bosnich said.

"Rhys Williams for me, should be in the Socceroos squad if not a Socceroos starter - [he] doesn't need to do it."

Bosnich said Victory's hard-tackling, rough style of play in the opening weeks was "uncharacteristic" and made him worry about how the team was going.

"I'm a little bit concerned with Melbourne Victory," Bosnich said.

"We saw at the start of last week's derby, some of the tackles that went flying in from Valeri and a few others, uncharacteristic. They don't need to do this.

"And when a team are doing things like this when they don't need to do it, it makes me start to wonder is everything all happy families behind the scenes?

"For me, if you go through their team, one to 11, you compare it to every other team in the A-League, I would say pretty much hands down they are the best side.

"(They're) not playing like that at the moment and there's a few incidents that have started to creep up which are very uncharacteristic."